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Blog Post – “Let’s Chat”

Before I took the KaiVac training I had never really defined for myself what the word "cleaning" meant to me. It was alway just something that was done, looked good, had a smell about it that I liked and because I saw "clean" and smelled "clean" therefore it was "clean". The verb is defined in a Google search as "make (something or someone) free of dirt, marks, or mess, especially by washing, wiping, or brushing". My KaiVac instructor used the term "the act of removing unwanted soil or material". Simple enough even when we add the word "System". Now it is a process of making something free of dirt or unwanted soil.

Does what I observe being done in my favourite restaurant, my office, my gym have the process to actually do a "cleaning"? Was the dirt removed? Not from my vantage point. Especially now that I have seen what KaiVac cleaning systems do. The wet cotton cloth wiped across the table and a smile from the server had me fooled. The wet mop moving across the floor in a really fancy pattern had me fooled. The dirt was only moved around and given the opportunity to disperse into finer particles. Even the smell of bleach had me fooled. The reality was that some of the living dirt was killed but it was left on the table as food for the other living dirt that wasn't killed. I was fooled by the claim, "98% of the bacteria present is killed...". Just a buffet now for the other 2% to feed off of. I'm able to take the 2%, everyone needs a peck of dirt sort of statement, but, the 98% of dirt still on the table that gives me food for thought.

Why do the kill job and not do the cleaning - remove the dirt? Good question.

The KaiVac Cleaning System known as KaiFly was shown at my training. Before the table was cleaned the level of "dirt" was measured using an ATP test meter. Again who has ever heard of an ATP test, not me. What is it? Time for another Google search. The ATP test is a process of rapidly measuring actively growing microorganisms through detection of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. The test showed the table was as dirty as the floor around it. Looks can be deceiving. The floor looked dirtier. Now clean half the table using the wet cloth (mop) system and test. Then the other half using the KaiVac KaiFly system and test. Unbelievable! The wet cloth versus KaiFly had me at the table. Then the floor using the same process just a different scale of machinery; a mop bucket versus the OmniFlex. Stop it! The floor using KaiVac was cleaner than the table using a cloth.

Now I leave you with this question. What is the "system"? The final step in all of the cleaning that goes on with KaiVac is the removal of the dirt. Either by way of a squeegee, a vacuum or both. The mop and bucket as well as the wet cloth method of "cleaning" did not remove anything. In fact it aggravated the dirt and did the same for me. I left the training session saying to everyone I talked to for hours after.....how could I ever eat from a table that is mopped with a wet cloth. It might as well have been the floor mop they used.